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[BobBill]

Thought some might be interested.

Was doubtful about where to put this post.

Using 24" Weber grille.

3/8" steel plate to support and protect stone, 14 x 16" to just fit inside grille.

Round 1 x 1" cut steel pipe really only need 4 or 6 at most.

Inexpensive 14 x 15 stone ($13.) Perfect. Just fits.

Using .50 bag of Kingsford charcoal across grille - am sure you can substitute wood. Pipe supports steel plate, which supports stone.

First pie took 30 minutes, so no advantage, save wood smoke taste. Was load of coals as shown in pic with pipe in place off to each side.

Increased coals to half bag, spread across grille beneath the plate.

Second pie took 9 minutes, but so hot it charred.

Next pie took 9 minutes but fire had diminished intensity, a bit well done, but passed.

Temp guessed to be near 700, but maybe hotter.

Stone is the less expensive and thinner kind, but it took the heat well (gradual)...

 

[Grilling24x7]

This is very interesting to me.  I want to try something similar one day.  Normally I'm a griller but my love for pizza has taken me indoors with my pizza stone.  I see this is an old thread - hopefully you're still around.

A few questions:

a.  Did you keep the lid on the grill for the entire cooking process?  If so, did you notice too much smoke/charcoal flavor on the pizza?
b.  What is the purpose of the cut steel pipes?
c.  Is the steel plate necessary to protect the stone?  what would happen if you put the stone directly on the grates?

The possibilities seem great here, especially if you utilize wood rather than all charcoal.  It could really have a wood fired oven taste (I think?).

John

[BobBill]

Be glad to help.

a. Lid on all the time? Once the charcoal goes gray, lid goes on, to keep the high temps. I might add, that I put the steel plate and stone on as soon as possible as the coals are heating so they heat as gradually as possible, and only 5 pieces of pipe are needed, each corner and center. Spares are handy, however.

a2. Use wood? You could use wood, but just add a bit after the coals are gray and it adds enough wood flavor. In fact, I for one, prefer only a minimum wood smoke flavor as it can overpower pie ingredients.

b. Pipes? The cut steel pipes keep the plate and stone elevated a bit from being too close to the charcoal and permit heat circulation. Lot of coals and they are very hot.

c. Plate needed? The plate needs to be under to stone to prevent cracking from the fire/heat.

What it really does is make it possible to serve up 4 or 6 large pies fast for a crowd.

Weber gets quite hot and pies need watching. I over-charred one in just 9 minutes so have taken to measuring out charcoal and lessened it to prevent overheating in general.

I am not big on charred pies for taste and for health reasons.

The pic of oven on stone 2-pounder before freezing, and a bit overdone for freezing pie, from last week is about as dark as I go.

Pie is small, about 12 inches, Neapolitan rise with bread dough, ala Spacca Napoli (Chicago) recipe. Goldsmith uses 00 flour, which I find hard to obtain, so I do with what I have.

No bread benefits from charring, IMHO. Charring seems a recent fad and I bake for me anyway.  I started late, in '74 and do only about 50 to 75 pies a year, but I always try to out do last pie.

[BobBill]

After some practice and much beer, process is smooth, pies are the max. Summer only in this area.

As good as brick oven, way less expensive and easy to put away.

Roasted garlic, salt and basil...very few sliced and drained San Marzonos...a few, very few bits of cheese: yum!

Still very satisfied with oven bake as well, however.

Would have posted pics but they are on other machine.

Will do later.

[BobBill]

I forgot to add cost: stone was $15 or so, metal plate custom cut and steel pipe was $30, Weber I had but new around $100, used $10...pic of last "Web(er)-Za."